Tag Archives: Ann Mortifee

At the Old Schoolhouse Art Gallery: Kristen Scofield-Sweet’s final large-scale exhibition

From August 29 to September 14, the Old Schoolhouse Art Gallery will host ‘How Do You Like the Underworld?—Kristen Scofield-Sweet’s final large-scale exhibition.

 “This is my retirement party swan song on the wall,” she began. “This is a body of work that’s complete. One of the remarkable things about that is the artist doesn’t usually get to see their work all hung together, obviously, unless they have a show. You’re used to seeing a piece over the couch with the pillows or the throw at the back. To actually see them having a conversation with each other is really special.”

“Every picture tells a story, so you can get all tangled up with how it got painted and why, how I work and yada, yada. In an exhibition like this, the work gets to speak for itself, and that’s really profound.”

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Gleanings from Lovefest 2025

Lovefest 2025 was at Linnaea Farm on Saturday August 9th. 

Cortes Currents arrived early and wandered through the crowd asking people about the festival and why they kept coming back. In the process, I also recorded a few short clips of music, asked one of the principal organizers about this year’s program and some people shared their recollections of the festival’s beginnings

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Cortes Island Residents Waiting for CityWest To Connect Them

CityWest started hooking Cortes Island residents up to the internet in December 2023, but many homes are still waiting. As the evidence is anecdotal, it is difficult to say how many people are currently connected through CityWest and how many are not.

Sherman Barker just informed me that he has never met anyone who is connected. After waiting for two years of waiting, he was using Starlink by the time a CityWest crew showed up to do the final hook-up. 

“I have a pile of CityWest cable, all the way from my driveway to my yard, that they don’t want back.”  

Sean Coyote, a techie who works for Cortes Community Radio, said typically people who have yet to be serviced are told their names are on a list. Some, like Sherman, subsequently moved on to other internet providers. Sean added that there are a couple of CityWest trucks working on the island right now. 

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Stories from Lovefest 2024

Brenda Hansen, with her brother Dwayne and Kenny Hanuse, greeted the audience of Love Fest 2024 with the ‘Klahoose Welcome Song.’ (You can listen to it, sung in the ʔayʔaǰuθəm language, in the podcast version of this story.) 

Close to 700 people purchased tickets, performed, or were at the event on Saturday August 10. Cortes Currents went backstage to interview some of the performers and record clips of their music. 

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Love Fest 2024: Final touches Before the Day

A crew of seven volunteers was just starting to put up the stage, when Cortes Currents arrived at Linnaea Farm on Wednesday. The doors to Love Fest 2024 will open at 11 AM on Saturday, August 10. 

“This is  the fifth year. We took two years off during COVID, so it’s seven years since we started in 2017,” said Rex Weyler, one of the founding organizers of Love Fest,  

His co-producer, Benji Coey, added, “Things are going really well. We’re about three days out and things are moving very smoothly, so fingers crossed touch wood it continues. It’s going to be a beautiful day. The grass on the lawn in front of the stage is lush and green, which for this time of year is a miracle. The lake looks calm and I think the whole vibe is going to be really beautiful.”

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